Chapter 4
Eleanor’s gaze swept the room, instantly noting the audit reports spread across the mahogany table and the terrified expressions on the faces of her handpicked executives. She didn’t yell this time; her rage was too cold, too concentrated for screaming. She walked slowly toward the head of the table, her heels clicking rhythmically against the floor like a death march.
“Get out of my seat,” Eleanor hissed, stopping right beside Julian.
Julian didn’t flinch. He leaned back in the leather chair, resting his hands casually on the armrests. “It’s not your seat anymore, Eleanor. As of nine-fifteen this morning, the board has voted to place you on administrative leave pending a federal forensic audit.”
Laughter escaped Eleanor’s lips, sharp and brittle. She turned to Marcus, her voice dripping with venom. “Marcus? You’re going to listen to this pathetic warehouse rat? Security! Clear this room!”
No one moved. Marcus kept his eyes fixed firmly on the wood grain of the table, refusing to meet her gaze. The silence in the room was the most damning response Eleanor could have possibly received. In that single moment, she realized her empire of fear had collapsed not because of a hostile takeover by Wall Street, but because of a quiet man she had spent a decade dismissing as irrelevant.
“You think you’ve won,” Eleanor snarled, leaning down so her face was inches from Julian’s. “I know things about you, Julian. I know why my daughter married you in secret. I know the debt you carried before she died. I will tear your life apart piece by piece, and when I am finished, your little girl won’t even have a roof over her head.”
“You’ve tried that for seven years, Eleanor,” Julian said quietly, standing up to tower over her. “And look where it got you. Covered in cardboard dust in the middle of your own store.”
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Without another word, Julian gathered his papers, placed them neatly in his briefcase, and walked past her out of the boardroom. He didn’t look back. He knew Eleanor was cornered, and a cornered animal was dangerous, but he also knew that her primary weapon—fear—only worked on people who were afraid to lose. Julian had already lost the only person who truly mattered; everything else was just property.
Outside the building, the midday sun felt warm against his face. He pulled out his phone and dialed Lily’s school to let her know he would be picking her up early today. They were going to go shoe shopping, real shoe shopping, where she could pick out anything her heart desired. But first, there was a press release to draft. The public needed to know the truth about Sterling Enterprises, and the clean-up crew was just getting started.
